Managing Shrinkage in the Modern Call Center

The call center of today is very different from the call center of 30 years ago. For starters, companies are more likely to use the term “contact center,” since it's not just about calls anymore. But beyond that, call centers of today are seldom a single location, but a collection of disparate locations located all over the state, the country or even the world, all linked to together virtually via distributed technology. They may even involve home-based agents or knowledge workers located in remote offices. And far beyond calls, agents may also be handling chat, e-mail, callbacks and social networking.

So given that keeping call center shrinkage under control has always been a challenge, in today's multichannel, distributed contact center, managing shrinking is nearly impossible without back-up.

Good back-up.

In a recent blog post, Monet Software (http://blog.monetsoftware.com/2011/05/call-center-shrinkage-why-does-it-get.html) discussed the role of workforce management solutions in keeping shrinkage under control in light of all the complexities contact centers must manage today.

“Shrinkage becomes more of an issue for call centers that don’t leverage WFM solutions. Usually, they don’t have the necessary visibility into what happens at any moment in time and what is supposed to happen based on the published schedule,” says the company.

While once a manager could simply stand up and do a head count of agents to get a handle on how the center was doing in adherence, it's just not possible with today's call center.

To this end, Monet is sponsoring an upcoming Webinar called “Strategies for improved call center schedule adherence.” The Webinar will feature industry expert Penny Reynolds from the The Call Center School who will share with attendees proven practices on schedule adherence that have resulted in increased availability and reduced shrinkage.

Participants will learn the following:

•To quantify the cost and service implications of missing staff;

•Identify ways to communicate and educate staff on the “power of one” in call center staffing;

•Describe options for setting adherence performance goals and selling to the staff;

•Identify the reasons why staff don't adhere to the schedule plan; and

•Identify reward and consequence programs that support adherence goals.